Side By Side
by Anakin T Skywalker
Summary: A pair of short stories. Two sets of enemies. I don't want to ruin the story, so I won't tell you more. Just read it.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Star Wars. I have never even pretended to own Star Wars. If you sue me, something very bad will happen to you. And if you do sue me, I will have had nothing to do with the fact that you woke up with your limbs lightsabered off.

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**Part I**

He'd thought for sure his heart was broken when he felt their deaths, the deaths of Jedi Knights across the galaxy. Jedi he had seen brought in as infants, Jedi whose Trials he had watched, Jedi who had grown into great Masters before his aged eyes.

He'd thought his heart was broken when he learned of the deceit and the betrayal. When he'd seen his beloved Temple burning, stormtroopers desecrating its sanctity with death and destroying the light of the knowledge it held. When he'd seen the precious younglings, the future of the Jedi order, strewn carelessly through the great hallowed halls, brutally slain by one of their own.

He'd thought his heart was broken then.

Until now.

Now, as he fought the man who had masqueraded as the wise and good leader of the galaxy, in the great chamber where the fate of worlds was decided.

Now, as the full measure of his own ignorance dawned upon him.

Not only because he had been unable to see that the Supreme Chancellor was really the Lord of the Sith himself, leading them all down the path of destruction, securely trapping them under the thrall of the Dark Side.

Because all that the Jedi had been –

Just simply wasn't enough.

All the years invested in learning, all the knowledge and training and preparation – all had come to nothing.

All those Jedi who had died, were dead in vain.

The sickening, burning knowledge that the Jedi, blinded by their own arrogance, comforted by the power and status they enjoyed, had allowed the Sith to grow so far beyond themselves – this is what sapped Yoda's strength, what weakened him before Sidious's onslaught.

This is what spread his concentration thin enough that he misjudged Sidious's stroke.

At the same moment that Sidious, already gloating in his complete triumph over the Jedi, misjudged Yoda's stroke.

Each completely missed the other in the exact same manner, the follow-throughs drawing their lightsabers back into the exact same positions.

Each had the exact same thought.

And thus, by the will of the Force, Darth Sidious, Lord of the Sith, stabbed forward as Yoda, Master of the Jedi, leapt to stab forward.

And so the great Jedi Master and the great Sith Lord fell, each pierced through the heart.

Side by side.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I still do not own Star Wars, and I still didn't lightsaber you if you sued me

**Disclaimer:** I still do not own Star Wars, and I still didn't lightsaber you if you sued me. Honestly, it was my alter ego.

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**Part II**

He'd thought for sure his heart was broken when he saw that security hologram. Seeing his former student and friend, the great hope of all the Jedi, killing their younglings, was the worst moment of all his life.

Until now.

Now, as he fought for his life against his best friend, each blow ripped a huge chunk from his heart and flung it bleeding on the hard durasteel floor, where the man who had once been Anakin Skywalker ground it beneath his heel and kicked it into the river of lava below. He blocked every attack, and dodged most of the kicks and punches, but each was a death-blow just the same. When the monster in possession of Anakin's body stood over him, reaching out with Anakin's hand, gripping his throat with Anakin's fingers, it was not his throat that was crushed; it was his spirit.

Obi-Wan barely even understood why he was fighting any more; perhaps it was simply some primal instinct of survival, ingrained so deeply into him that it remained when all else was torn away. If so, better to overcome that animal instinct, toss away his weapon, and die.

But maybe, just maybe, he was fighting for something more.

Maybe he was fighting for the Jedi. For the lost promise of the younglings, so mercilessly murdered. For the hope that one day, the Jedi might rise once more and cast this evil of the Sith into the darkness they so loved forever.

Maybe he was fighting for what Anakin Skywalker had once been, what he had represented.

Maybe he was fighting for the Light.

Because there was just that chance, he fought on.

Slash, parry, whirl, kick, dodge.

He slipped out of the way just in time, and the slash that had been intended to slice down through his head cut deep into a control panel instead.

The shields around the complex went down, and lava began to fountain and rain around them.

Attack, block, twist, jab, parry, slash, jump.

A large pipe ran out over the lava behind him; he let the man who should have been his brother drive him back onto it. Both struggled to maintain their balance as they fought, further and further out on the pipe, until they reached a place where it widened.

There it was that Anakin charged at Obi-Wan. Their arms met, and they gripped each other's wrists, locked in a contest not of lightsabers but of strength.

There it was that, somehow, in the struggle, their foreheads slammed together.

Hard enough that their skulls bounced off each other.

Hard enough to knock both men into unconsciousness.

Hard enough that neither one felt any pain or terror as they fell, side by side, into the river of fire.

So the last of the Jedi and the last of the Sith met their end.

Side by side.


End file.
